We've seen some pretty wild Nintendo Switch controllers over the last few years - including an actual, big blue Dragon Quest Slime face - but we weren't expecting to see a Joy-Con alternative quite like this.

Gaming accessory maker Snakebyte has today began shipping these 'MULTI: PLAYCON' controllers for Nintendo's machine. The idea here is to provide "a more comfortable gaming experience" when enjoying all of your local multiplayer games, hoping to combat the awkwardness some players experience while trying to hold a single official Joy-Con for hours on end.

Apparently, 16 of the little beasts can be connected to a Switch at any one time and are said to offer a "rock-solid" connection to your console over 7m. Here's a quick feature list:

Full button functionality with vibrations of the micromotor

Wireless connection via Bluetooth

Two controllers for multi-player operation on one device

The built-in battery offers a long battery life with high charging speed

The MULTI: PLAYCON controllers are compatible with all Switch / Switch Lite games that can also be played with a single Joy-Con controller.

As well as the black and grey models, you can also pick up these rather fetching blue and orange ones.

Ryan can list the first 151 Pokémon all in order off by heart – a feat he calls his ‘party trick’ despite being such an introvert that he’d never be found anywhere near a party. He’d much rather just have a night in with Mario Kart and a pizza, and we can’t say we blame him.

Snakebyte do make some interesting accessories, I have their "Pro wireless" controller and it's not bad, but these really are something else. Were they trying to cash in on Halloween but missed the mark due to production issues or something?

@antdickens They are joy-cons as much as the Pro Controller is a joy-con. It's not being pedantic, it's being accurate. Which I know is not one of the characteristics of Nintendo Life, but still, one can hope.

@antdickens Well I can manufacture a pair of 8bitdo look-a-like tiny controllers and market them as joy-con replacements. But are they really tho? Again, they are joy-con replacements as much as a Pro Controller is a joy-con replacement. But you don't call a Pro Controller a joy-con. It's painfully obvious.

EDIT: The video even shows that they can't be used as joy-cons in games where you use both joy-cons vertically. So much for replacement.

@RazumikhinPG yeah, as I already said before, they're not being sold as a replacement. I don't like using the single Joy-Con when playing on the go, so would certainly consider these to throw in my go-bag.

@antdickens So if they're not being sold as replacements, why call them joy-cons? They certainly don't have all the functions of an actual joy-con. And you can throw a Pro Controller or a smaller 8bitdo controller in your bag too, and you still don't call them joy-cons.Why are we arguing the obvious here? These are not joy-cons, article shouldn't call them joy-cons. Nothing more to add.

@RazumikhinPG@antdickens As we're into specific details here, my pedantry detector is also malfunctioning over the plural of Joy-Con. Is it Joy-Con or Joy-Cons? And if it's Joy-Con (as in the title of the post "These... Joy-Con..." , then would Joy-Cons actually be 4 of the little things? We should be told!...

@RazumikhinPG Devil's advocate, you could call them joy con replacements. They do mimic a single joycon so the description fits. They don't connect to the switch physically so I'd say they're more of a wireless joycon replacement.